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- Title
Women Participation under MGNREGS: Impact on their Socio-economic Empowerment.
- Authors
Maurya, Seema
- Abstract
Indian society is a gender-stratified society wherein women have a low and subordinated position in almost every sphere of life. Social norms and customs deprive women in general, and rural women in particular, from their right to have their say in important decisions including decisions of their own life. These norms confine them into household activities and primary sector that is apparent from low Workforce Participation Rate (WPR) of women accompanied by the large gender wage-gap. Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS) tries to address this anomaly by encouraging rural women to participate in productive economic activities through its flexible provisions and equal wages. This paper attempts to analyze the efficacy of MGNREGS in women participation and their empowerment level in terms of their say in decision making, financial autonomy and social boundedness with the help of India Human Development Survey data (IHDS-I and IHDS-II). To examine spatial variations in the result, 14 major states, based on HDI values, were grouped into two categories, namely, Advanced States and Backward States. The Logit regression model has been used to examine the likelihood of participation. An effort has also been made to identify the increment in empowered women due to MGNREGS. The study found that women are equally participating in the scheme although there are differences in terms of caste, religion, poverty, education and land holdings. Findings suggest that participation is higher in the Advanced States compared to the Backward States, but it does not seem to commensurate with their enhanced empowerment. Further, the study reflects better participation of women with an already existing capacity of decision making and financial autonomy.
- Subjects
INDIA; WOMEN'S empowerment; RURAL women; NATIONAL Rural Employment Generation Scheme (India); WOMEN'S employment; SOCIOECONOMIC status
- Publication
IASSI Quarterly, 2019, Vol 38, Issue 2, p227
- ISSN
0970-9061
- Publication type
Article